Nothing in Hollywood is a sure thing, but some things are more sure than others. It helps, if you&#x2019;re going to throw $140 million in the direction of a summer blockbuster, to have Roland Emmerich, the guy who made Independence Day and The Patriot, the guy whose films have grossed over a billion dollars in this country, directing it. It helps to have Channing Tatum, fresh out the Magic Mike strip club, backflipping into the lead role in your film. Do you perhaps need a handsome and charismatic president to inhabit the White House you plan— for the third time in the same filmography!—on destroying? How about the Academy Award-winner and slow jam assassin Jamie Foxx? Does that sound like a movie that people will watch for the next one thousand years on cable, perhaps, after a rousing showing at the summer box office?

It did. But Emmerich&#x2019;s White House Down, despite being every bit as fun and preposterous as you might have hoped, ended up becoming one of the summer&#x2019;s more spectacular failures, at least in theaters, where few went to see it. There were reasons, sure—Olympus Has Fallen, an entirely different film about a White House takeover which came out in March, three months before White House Down, being the biggest. As for the other reasons, well…let&#x2019;s let Emmerich explain.

Were you pleased with the way White House Down came together and got released? You put it out in the world. Did it go the way you wanted it to go?

[Laughter.] Is this a trick question? I think we were all terribly disappointed. Because we thought we made a great movie. But obviously it didn’t click, or the marketing couldn’t aid it.

As a partisan, it was a drag to see the movie pointed to as an example of one of many blockbusters that underperformed this summer, financially. Is that your impression of it too?

It underperformed. We were not happy with the numbers. It did a little better in international. In some countries, once the movie has the feeling of a flop, it doesn&#x2019;t matter—it performed quite well in, like, China for example. But in other areas of the world, like for example, in Europe, it didn&#x2019;t perform as well. Besides Germany, but it’s always like a little bit of homegame for me there.

Why did it underperform?

It was like this: The movie had a clear concept. It was like a hostile takeover of the White House. And Sony felt, because of the other movie [Olympus Has Fallen]—we always called it the other movie—we cannot show the burning White House. And they should have showed all the other big events and images at least. It was interesting, in China, they did that. They showed Air Force One going down and the Capitol exploding and the burning White House, and all of a sudden it felt like the big movie it was. And what they did was put the two actors in front of nothing. And at the beginning we had a huge push back, when the first TV commercials ran. Another movie like that? It was just bad timing. And the other movie, which nobody took seriously, fully embraced the concept and made a hundred million dollars. It was more like a hundred million dollars that we should have made, plus our 73 million or whatever it was we made. It’s very unique that the movies are so similar. They might feel totally different. But in story and imagery, totally different.

How does that happen, that they make two White House movies?

I was not aware of it when I took the job. But they knew. Sony knew there was another film. But they didn&#x2019;t tell me. I got told by one of the producers. We had taken on the movie, and we had just hired Channing Tatum, who I really wanted. So you don&#x2019;t get out of it. And you always kind of say to yourself, well, the bigger second movie is always the more successful one. And worldwide we were more successful than them. But we also likely cost nearly twice as much. I think the movie will have a long life, because it’s a good movie. I had the same thing happen to me when I did The Patriot with Mel Gibson. It also didn’t do that well in the theaters, but it’s probably one of the most seen movies on TV these days.

It’s funny, I don’t know what your budget was, 150 million—

It was actually 140.

So I don’t know how a 140 million dollar blockbuster can fly under the radar, but yours pretty much did.

I think the summer was too full. It was too many guys onscreen. And then it&#x2019;s just, you know, maybe because we had Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx, everybody thought, &#x201C;This must be big.&#x201D; But the fact was neither Channing nor Jamie could do solo promotion for the movie, because Channing was shooting the Wachowski film, and only got a week off. And then later, for foreign, another week off. So he actually only did two weeks of promotion, which is not enough for a movie like that. And then naturally Jamie Foxx said, "Oh, if Channing is only doing two weeks, then I’m also only doing two weeks."

We actually were tracking better than The Heat. And The Heat clearly beat us. Which is also sometimes—The Heat felt more fun, you know? I wouldn’t know exactly what to pinpoint about what went wrong. And now that poor fellow at Sony, Marc Weinstoc, got fired over this. Always somebody has to be the bogeyman. He was the head of worldwide marketing. It was not only my film. All their movies tanked. It was terrible.

Channing Tatum had such an incredible year last year, it seemed like we finally had another movie star.

He still will be a movie star. Brad Pitt, for example, he had flops in between. It just comes with the territory. And I told him. He was the most bummed about it. And I said, "Channing, don&#x2019;t worry, because people see your potential onscreen. They&#x2019;re not stupid. They&#x2019;re not blind." And you know, when you&#x2019;re on the high that he was, being called by People Magazine the sexiest man alive, a downfall has to come, you know what I mean. And I kind of told him, look, I&#x2019;ve seen this over and over again, also with Heath Ledger, who was super successful and then not so successful, and then super successful again. You have to wait it out. You have to just do good work and then everything will happen. I’m pretty philosophical about these things.

Was this that different than things that have happened to you in the past-—like, say, Godzilla or something?

Godzilla, for example, was overhyped. And that’s another situation: when you overhype a movie so much that everyone thinks it’s the next coming of Christ, and then it naturally kind of backfires. But that movie did very well in international.

But had you had this kind of situation happen, where you made the right movie with the right guy, and then it didn’t happen?

The Patriot. Mel was perfect for that film. I think he should’ve been nominated for an Oscar, because his performance was awesome. But somewhat because we were pitted against The Perfect Storm, directed by my old friend Wolfgang, we destroyed each other. So he was unhappy, I was unhappy. And I had been saying, "Push this movie later into August," but they didn’t listen to me. And then all of a sudden—it was an R-rated movie—you can’t have an R-rated movie on Independence Day weekend. That just doesn’t work.

Does it make you worry about the model at all? I’m sure people brought that Spielberg speech about the impending &#x201C;implosion&#x201D; of the film industry to your attention.

Yes, and that’s also blown a bit out of proportion, because this summer made more money than any other summer. Maybe the investment was bigger than any other summer. But I think the studios will keep doing these movies, because it’s these movies that make money. When you go to a country like Japan or China or Russia, that’s the movies that people want to see. And even After Earth, which made 60 million, made like 180 million in foreign. In the end it made 240 million dollars. Which is not enough, but it’s not terrible. They didn’t lose much money. So that’s what everybody forgets. Even a movie like White House Down in the end will probably lose only a little money. They will probably be in the red for two or three years but then not in the red anymore. Because both Jamie and Channing will have a huge future. Which makes the movie more and more valuable. Look at what happened to a movie like Blade Runner. Blade Runner was supposed to tank, and didn’t do any money, and now everyone thinks it&#x2019;s the coming of Christ. Which it is. Because a movie didn&#x2019;t make money doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie.

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